After a decade of defining, redefining and perfecting their art, Dead Poet Society is back with their captivating second album 'FISSION'
Dead Poet Society, the uniquely captivating rock group consisting of frontman Jack Underkofler, Jack Collins (guitar), Will Goodroad (drums) and Dylan Brenner (bass), have released their second album FISSION. The album is set to capture the hearts and challenge the minds of both old and new fans.
Following on from their acclaimed debut album –!–, (2021), FISSION seeks to unpack the personal journey Dead Poet Society have been on since then. The new album is a study of personal change and the turbulence of growth that, as Jack Underkofler says, takes “a microscopic and broad look at the events that changed who we are.”
This album is about unpacking those emotional pains that come with being an adult
Jack Underkofler
The album explores relationship breakdowns, examinations of addiction, ruminations on the responsibilities & challenges of adulthood, loss and a continual search for self.
“In a lot of ways this album is about unpacking those emotional pains that come with being an adult,” Underkofler says. “The past few years have left me in a constant state of growth through the life events of which I’ve had little control, or which didn’t pan out the way I wanted them to,” the frontman admits.
The things you go through define you as a person and turn you into a person worth being
Jack Underkofler
“There’s a ‘before’ you, and an ‘after’ you, and there’s no going back. Life tends to force your hand, and it’s futile to fight it. You have to accept that things that happen to you will change you, and let them build you into the next phase of who you are.”
“There is a constant battle to not mourn who I was, because the things you go through define you as a person and turn you into a person worth being,” he adds. “But that can be difficult to wrestle with. There is a positive to it, but it is birthed through a lot of pain.”
“It’s both exciting – ‘Fuck you. I’m gonna take this head on’ – and at the same time, you’re terrified how you’re going to get through the next month,” adds Goodroad. “One day you’re super confident about where life is going, the next you’re second-guessing everything. It’s like the myth of Sisyphus: it’s a boulder you have to push up the hill every day”.
The track ’81 Tonnes’ gave guitarist Collins his clearest understanding of the emotions he and his bandmates share.
“Jack described ’81 Tonnes’ to us as about being left with ‘a permanently altered state of mind’, which felt like the perfect summary of so many of those songs on the album to me,” he says. ”They all lead you to the finish line of, ‘I’m a different person now because of all this…’”
Listen to ’81 Tonnes’ here:
This album is the defining moment of when we truly became Dead Poet Society
Jack Underkofler
“We worked a lot more on guitar tones, bass tones and drum sounds, and paid a close attention to melody. The aim was to make our sound bigger – we wanted a more dynamic record, where you could hear the best representation of us live. I feel like the evolution is us maturing a little bit, and wanting to create a sound that was less an obvious reflection of our influences – Muse, Queens Of The Stone Age, Nothing But Thieves, Royal Blood – and more definitively our own. We don’t control where the inspiration comes from. We just had to obey the songs and what they were telling us to do next,” Collins says.
“We hone in on a feeling, rather than a sound,” adds Underkofler. “This album is the defining moment of when we truly became Dead Poet Society. It’s the closest we’ve come to realising the essence of the ideas we’ve always had for this band”.
Watch the music video for album-highlight ‘My Condition’ here:
The compelling record is one of depth and substance that weaves through the spectrum of anthemic alternative, dark hard-rock and progressive indie. FISSION is both comfortingly familiar and disturbingly alien, raw and analogue – “Profoundly human,” as Goodroad says – while possessing a colder, digital inflection. The album is full of unexpected turns and deviations, and the more you listen, the more secrets get revealed.
When all is said and done, the truth is that the impact of FISSION and Dead Poet Society will reverberate for years to come. Pre-save the album here:
Next In Next In
⇥ An Interview With Seymour Stein
